Bag handle forming machine

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to the formation of bag handles by laying a handle rope into a sinusoidal curve over a glued tape with the tape forming the axis of the curve and then superimposing the second tape over the first tape and severing the tapes along said axis and finally alternatively separating formed handles from opposite sides of said axis.

United States Patent I John Bagnall 1785 Caledonia Road, Mount Royal,Quebec, Canada App]. No. 662,399

Filed Aug. 22, 1967 Patented Sept. 21, 1971 Inventor BAG HANDLE FORMINGMACHINE 4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 156/439, 93/8, 156/177, 156/562 Int. Cl B65h 17/00 Field ofSearch 156/439, 177, 562; 93/8, 35

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,075,672 3/1937 Stark156/177 2,586,514 2/1952 Canno 93/35 2,844,075 7/1958 Davis et al. 93/83,388,628 6/1968 Blayney 156/440 X 3,424,067 l/1969 Blair 156/440 XPrimary ExaminerBenjamin R. Padgett Att0rney-C. A. Rowley ABSTRACT: Thepresent invention relates to the formation of bag handles by laying ahandle rope into a sinusoidal curve over a glued tape with the tapeforming the axis of the curve and then superimposing the second tapeover the first tape and severing the tapes along said axis and finallyalternatively separating formed handles from opposite sides of saidaxis.

PATENTEB SEP21 1971 SHEET 1 [IF 3 INVENTOR John BAGNALL A TTORNEPATENTED SEP21 19m SHEET 2 OF 3 INVENTOR John BAGNALL PATENTED SEP21I971 sum 3 BF 3 "war/1'01: John BAGNALL The present invention relates toa machine for forming bag handles and to bag handles formed thereby,more particularly to a machine for the continuous manufacture of baghandles and to bag handles formed without staples.

Various machines have been proposed for the manufacture of bag handles.One is shown in US. Pat. No. 2,075,672. This machine intermittentlyadvances a web while forming rope into substantially sinusoidalconfiguration across the web and stapling the rope to the web. Such amachine is relatively slow in operation due to the intermittent movementand forms a handle of inferior quality compared to the handle formed bythe instant invention.

Various aspects of the invention will be more specifically described byreference to the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bag handle formed in accordance withthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view along the lines X-X of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating the steps in the manufacture ofthe handle of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 is a partly schematic cross-sectional view of a machine formanufacturing the handles of FIGS. 1 and 2 and carrying out the stepsillustrated in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the machine of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an elevation view of the machine of FIG. 4 viewed from theleft-hand side of FIG. 4, and

FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating the movement of one specificpart of the machine.

In FIG. 1, there is shown an improved handle made in accordance with theinvention. The handle is lighter, cheaper to make, and more readilyglued in place than the previously known stapled handles. In the handleof FIG. 1, the carrier portion 25 is essentially similar to priorhandles but the base portion 26, instead of being a single piece ofstiff cardboard to which the carrier portion 25' is stapled, comprisestwo pieces of strong but lightweight kraft paper and the carrier portion25 is adhered in sandwiched relationship between the two layers 30 and31. The type of paper used, is, for example, brown kraft paper of 60lbs. per ream, a ream being considered as 500 sheets 24 inches by 36inches. The layers 30 and 31 are laminated together by glue, and this iscarried out in preferably such a way that the layer 30 remainssubstantially flat, whereas the layer 31 is moulded around the thicknessof the carrier portion 25', as shown more clearly in FIG. 2. The layers30 and 31 may be, for example, between 6 inches and 8 inches long andabout 1 inch wide, a reasonable range being about three-fourth inch to1% inches. The construction of the handle, as shown in FIG. 2 ensuresgood adherence of the carrier portion 25' to the layers 30 and 31. Atthe same time, the face of the layer 31 is sufficiently smooth to ensuregood adherence between that face and the bag. There are no staples tointerfere with the adherence to the bag, and the lightweight nature ofthe base portion renders the finished bag less liable to tear.

The handles of FIGS. 1 and 2 are manufactured by a novel sequence ofsteps illustrated by FIG. 3. The layer 30 is laid over a rotatingsurface of a drum 40 on the cylindrical surface of which are provided anumber of projecting studs 41. As the drum rotates, the carrier rope 42for the carrier portion 25 is laid around the studs 41, so that the ropeleaves the drum 40 in approximately sinusoidal form, so that loopsconstituting the carrier portions 25' project alternately from oppositesides of the strip 30', which is double the eventual width of the baseportion of the handle. The outwardly facing side of the strip 30 isprecoated with adhesive which is shown in the form of dots. As the ropeis laid across the strip 30' between the loops, it sticks to theadhesive. Subsequently, a second layer 31' is laid over the layer 30',the two layers being of the same width. The layer 31' is pressed inplace against the layer 30 and around the rope 42 by suitable means.

Next, slits 43 are made in the combined strips 30, 31, such slitsextending halfway across the width of the combined layers, and being cutfrom alternate side edges of the combined layers at positions oppositethe apexes of the curve.

After the half-slits 43 are formed, the combined layers 30',

31', together with the rope, are slit longitudinally down the.

center so that the construction falls apart into a succession of handlesof the configuration shown in FIG. 1.

The machine forcarrying out the steps illustrated in FIG. 3 is shown inFIGS. 4, 5 and 6. The necessary parts of the machine will becomeapparent from the following description. The strip 31' of kraft paperwhich is, for example, 3% inches wide is fed from a feed roll 50 througha succession of guide rollers 51 and against the cylindrical surface ofdrum 40, centrally between the projecting studs 41 shown more clearly inFIGS. 5 and 6. The centermost of the guide rolls 51 rotates within aglue pot 55 and coats the exposed face (lower face) of the strip 31.

Rope 42 from a feed roll (not shown) is fed to the drum 40 by means of areciprocating guide lever 52 pivotably connected to the frame of themachine by a pivot pin 56. The lever 52 has an axial extension 54slideably mounted in the bore of a bearing 63 attached to the lever 52.Lever 52 is reciprocated about pivot 56 by means of a cam roll 57provided with a suitably shaped cam slot 58 which engages a cam follower59 at the lower end of the lever 52. The cam roll 57 is indicated by thedotted lines in FIG. 4 is geared to the drum 40 for rotation insynchronization therewith. The extension 54 is also provided with afollower roller 62 that engages a pair of cams 61 that impart acontrolled movement or extension of the extension 54 axially relative tothe lever 52 as will be described hereinbelow.

As the roller 57 rotates and rocks the lever 52 back and forth about pin56 the extension 54 is moved outward against a return spring 60 by meanspivoting cam elements 61. As the top end of the lever 52 moves in onedirection the roller 62 rides along the upper surface of one of the cams61 so that the extension 54 is drawn out against the spring 60. As theroller reaches the end of the cam 61 adjacent the side of the machine,the roller 62 passes around the end of the cam to free the roller fromthe cam and permit the extensions 54 to be retracted by the spring 60.In the retracted position, the stop 63' engages a suitable bumper on thehousing for bearing 63. At this time the direction of movement of theupper end of the lever 52 is reversed by the cam 57 and roller 59 andthe roller 62 returns beneath the cam 61 which it has left. When theroller 62 reaches the cam block 61 (see FIG. 7) at the centerline of themachine, it rolls up the block 61' and lifts the cam 61 which it hasleft upwardly out of the way and then rides up onto the opposite 61 asit continues to move to the opposite edge of the machine and the processis then repeated. The motion of the roller 62 which is proportional tothe motion of the eye 53 is clearly shown by the arrow in FIG. 7.

During the above described movement of the extension 54 the ropecontacts the pins 41 and is drawn through the eye 53. When the roller 62is riding on the upper surface of a cam 61 (i.e., increasing theeffective length of the arm 52) the eye 53 is in advance of the pins 41and therefore places the rope in front of the pins 41 and when theroller is returning beneath the cam 61 the rope trails the pin 41. Atall times the rope is held in contact with the surfaces of the pins bytension applied to the rope.

The shape into which the rope 42 is formed is dependent on thearrangement of pins on the drum 40 and the operation of the lever 52.The rope is generally formed into a substantially sinusoidalconfiguration, however, the rope preferably traverses the strip 31 in adirection perpendicular to the strip and therefore the configuration ofthe rope 42 is not truly sinusoidal.

As the strip 31 and the rope 42 are applied to the drum a second strip30 of the same width as the strip 31' is fed from a roll 64 over guiderolls 65 into engagement against a gumming roller 66 which rotates in aglue bath 67. This second strip 30' is applied directly over the strip31 and the section of the rope 42 overlying the strip 31' just beforethe strip 31 and rope 42 leave the drum 40.

A pressure guide roll 68 of special construction (as shown in MG. 6)presses the strip 30' into intimate contact with the strip 31 and aboutthe rope 42. This roll 68 is provided with recesses 69 to clear thestuds 41 as they pass under the roller and is formed with a centralcutting disc 71 and a pair of roller sections 70 closely adjacent to theopposite sides of the cutting discs 71. These roller sections 70' areintegral with the roll 68 and are wide enough to span from the cuttingdisc 71 to the free edges of the strips 30 and 31. Axially alignedgrooves 70 are provided in the sections 70'. The roller sections 70'force the strip 30' into intimate contact with the strip 31 while thegrooves 70 accommodate the rope 42 and ensure that the strip 30 isforced into intimate contact with at least a semicircular area of therope 42. The cutting disc 71 severs the rope 42 through the strip 30 andfacilitates the later separation of the formed handles. If desired, thiscutting disc may be designed to sever completely through the strip 30,rope 42 and strip 31 to separate a pair of handle sections.

Upon leaving the drum 40, the combined strips 30', 31', and rope 42 passbetween a pair of rolls 72, 73. The roll 72 is provided with a pair ofdiagonally opposed knives 74, 75, which are arranged to extend axiallyhalfway across the axial length of the roll from the center to oppositesides of the roll. The roll 72 is of the appropriate diameter so thatthe halfway cuts 43 shown more clearly in FIG. 3 are made in thecombined strips 30, 31 by the knives 74 and 75.

The combined strips 30, 31' and rope 42 then pass through another pairof rolls 76, 77. Roll 77 rotates in a glue bath 78, and roll 76 contactsglue-covered roll 79 fed with glue from a glue bath 80, so that the topand bottom faces of the layers 30', 3| are coated as they leave themachine. The roll 76 is provided with a central peripheral cutting disc76' which severs the combined layers 30, 31' to separate the carrierhandles as they pass underneath against the roll 77. The rolls 77 and 79are provided with peripheral grooves to receive the knife blade of theroll 76.

As the individual carrier handles are severed, they fall onto hooks 81extending from the sides of a pair of conveyors 82. The conveyors 82carry the glued handles ready for insertion at the next stage intocarrier bags. Conveniently, a folding station and operator can besituated on opposite sides of the conveyors 82, so that the operatorssimply pick off the handles and insert them into bags as the conveyorpasses.

lt has been found that the machine can operate satisfactorily at a rateof between 72 and 100 handles per minute.

it is contemplated that many modifications may be made in the machine.For example, the studs 41 need not be arranged in a complete semicircle.It is only necessary that two studs be provided for each handle loop.The handle loops would then not be round, but would be three-sided.Alternatively, the studs 41 could be replaced by a curved ridge, whichmight be provided on the drum by moulding or die casting. Although themachine has been illustrated using handle rope made from twisted paperby known means, and that this type of handle is cheap and suitable,other types of handles, for example, cord handles, may equally well beused.

I claim:

l. A handle-forming machine comprising conveyor means, means to apply afirst strip of material to a surface of said conveyor means, means toapply a handle forming rope in crisscross relationship over said stripon said conveyor means as said surface moves, means for delivering asecond strip to said conveyor in overlying relation to said first stripand said rope, pressure means having a pressure-applying surface, agroove in said pressure-applying surface, said pressure-applying surfacebeing positioned to cooperate with said surface of said conveyor topress said second strip against said first strip and into intimatecontact with said first strip and said groove receiving said rope andpressing said second strip into hugging relationship about said rope assaid first strip, said second strip and said rope move continuously withsaid conveyor means whereby said first strip, said second strip and saidrope are adhesively bonded together.

. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for applyingsaid handle rope comprises; a pivoted lever, an axially extendablesection on said lever, an eye in said section through which said rope isfed, means to oscillate said lever and further means extending andretracting said extendable section.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means is adrum and further comprising pins projecting from said drum, said pinsbeing arranged in a predetermined pattern and being positioned to engagesaid rope as said rope is fed onto said drum thereby to aid in formingsaid rope into the desired pattern,

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said pressure meanscomprises; a roller mounted to rotate on an axis paral' lel to the axisof rotation of said drum, said pressure applying surface extendingperipherally of said roller and being sufficiently wide to cover saidstrips and said groove extending parallel to said axes.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for applyingsaid handle rope comprises; a pivoted lever, an axially extendablesection on said lever, an eye in said section through which said rope isfed, means to oscillate said lever and further means extending andretracting said extendable section.
 3. An apparatus as defined in claim1 wherein said conveyor means is a drum and further comprising pinsprojecting from said drum, said pins being arranged in a predeterminedpattern and being positioned to engage said rope as said rope is fedonto said drum thereby to aid in forming said rope into the desiredpattern.
 4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said pressuremeans comprises; a roller mounted to rotate on an axis parallel to theaxis of rotation of said drum, said pressure applying surface extendingperipherally of said roller and being sufficiently wide to cover saidstrips and said groove extending parallel to said axes.